Consider the following statements with respect to the adolescent population (age group of 10 to 19 years) of India, according to the 2011 Census: 1. Adolescent population comprises half the population of the country. 2. The group is regarded as youthful population with high potential. 3. In this group there are greater number of females than males. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a)1 only
- (b)2 only
- (c)1 and 2 only
- (d)2 and 3 only
Correct — B, 2 only. The question is lifted almost word for word from the school text, and the text answers all three claims. Statement 1 is far out: adolescents aged 10 to 19 were about 20.9 per cent of India's population at the 2011 Census — roughly a fifth, not a half. Statement 3 fails on the sex composition, because within that age group male adolescents were 52.7 per cent and female adolescents 47.3 per cent, so there are more males, not more females — the same imbalance that shows up in India's child sex ratio. Statement 2 is the one that survives: the group is treated as a youthful population of high potential, while also being described as vulnerable if it is not guided properly, with early marriage, female illiteracy, school dropout, poor nutrition and maternal mortality among adolescent mothers listed as the risks. Hence only the second statement stands.
- (a)1 only — Keeps the false statement and drops the true one. A fifth of the population is a large and policy-relevant share, but it is not half of it.
- (c)1 and 2 only — Pairs the true statement with the half-the-population claim. If adolescents alone were half the country, the remaining five-sixths of the age range would have to fit into the other half.
- (d)2 and 3 only — Pairs the true statement with the more-females claim. India's sex ratio at these ages runs the other way, with about 53 males to 47 females among adolescents in 2011.
Age composition is one of the three standard ways of reading a population, along with sex composition and rural-urban distribution. The adolescent band of 10 to 19 years matters because it is the entry point to the working-age group, so its size sets the shape of the demographic dividend, and because it is the band where schooling, nutrition and marriage-age policy still change life outcomes.
Percentage statements are best attacked by asking whether the number is even the right order of magnitude. Half the population in a ten-year band would be arithmetically impossible for a country whose median age in 2011 was in the mid-twenties. The sex-composition statement is the subtler one, and it is worth remembering that India's overall sex ratio favours females only at older ages; in the child and adolescent bands males are in excess. Present-day line: the National Youth Policy of 2014 that the same chapter cites has since been superseded by a new National Youth Policy drafted in 2021 and released later, and the 2011 figures are now more than a decade old because the decennial Census due in 2021 was postponed — the Government has since announced that the next Census will be conducted with a reference date of 1 March 2027.
- Adolescents aged 10 to 19 were about 20.9 per cent of India's population at the 2011 Census.
- Within that group, male adolescents were 52.7 per cent and female adolescents 47.3 per cent.
- The group is described as a youthful population of high potential, but vulnerable without proper guidance.
- The risks listed alongside it are low age at marriage, illiteracy especially among girls, school dropout, low nutrient intake and high maternal mortality among adolescent mothers.
- India's overall population density at the 2011 Census was 382 persons per sq km, up from 117 in 1951.
- Accepting a striking percentage without checking whether a single ten-year band could plausibly hold it.
- Assuming India's sex ratio favours females in every age band; among adolescents it does not.
- Reading high potential and vulnerable as contradictory — the source text asserts both at once.
As a statements item on the size and character of an age group, or as a direct percentage question from Census composition data.
According to the Census 2011, which of the following statements is/are correct? 1. A person who can only read but cannot write, is not literate. 2. A person aged seven years and above, who can both read and write with understanding in any language is treated as literate. Select the correct answer using the code given below.
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) Both 1 and 2
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer(c) Both 1 and 2
Census definitions tested the same way. Both items reward reading the source text closely enough to know exactly which age band or which ability the Census counts, rather than relying on an everyday sense of the word.
- practice — not a real PYQ
According to the 2011 Census, the population of India aged 10 to 19 years was approximately what share of the total population?
- (a)About 11 per cent
- (b)About 21 per cent
- (c)About 33 per cent
- (d)About 45 per cent
Answer(b) About 21 per cent — the adolescent band stood at roughly 20.9 per cent of the population in 2011.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The population density of India according to the 2011 Census was
- (a)267 persons per sq km
- (b)325 persons per sq km
- (c)382 persons per sq km
- (d)441 persons per sq km
Answer(c) 382 persons per sq km — up from 117 persons per sq km at the 1951 Census.